Death and the after life, The problem is Hope.

January 11, 2009

Hello

In a previous post about Hope is the problem, the subject of death was mentioned. A member of the group (karla) stated that both hope and fear are no more. This encouraged me to expound a little more about death and after life.

Fears and fear of death -in particular- rests on how man sees life and death. The ordinary worldly man sees life and death in a completely different way from the enlightened man or the sage.

In order to transcend our fears and fear of death and even to transcend death, we have to investigate our own understanding that lies deep in our hearts concerning life, death and the after life.

Man's outlook to death and the after life depends entirely on his outlook to life and living.

Regarding death and the after life, man is divided into four groups.

The unbeliever,

The conventional believer,

The spiritual or mystic.

The enlightened or the sage.

The unbeliever, he sees life as chaos and he arranges it with his capabilities and talents. He entirely depends on himself; there is no God and no after life. Death is only six feet down, nothing, the electricity is off. He lives his life secure. A security derived from matter such as money and all what comes with it from prestige, power, authority…etc. does what he wants, regards all catastrophes happening to him as bad luck. This man has no fear of death, he has no problem with death, but his real problem will pop up after he dies, when he finds that it is not six feet down and there is electricity.

The conventional believer, he lives his life depending on his capabilities attempting to achieve his objectives. Derives from life the maximum pleasures that God allows. God for him is an item among many other items, although God has superhuman powers. This man believes that if he lives according to what pleases God, God will reward him by a good earthly worldly life and as recompense to his good behavior on earth, he will be granted Paradise after his death. This man has minor anxieties regarding death and a minor doubt about where would he be after death. This man has a minor problem with death, his fear from death is minimum, he faces death bravely, but his wrong understanding of life and the after life will torment him. A wrong understanding telling him that he will leave this earthly residence and go somewhere, an unknown somewhere. Here enters the fear of leaving behind the securities of what he was used to in his earthly residence and becomes without these securities facing a strange unknown place, he becomes estranged and becomes lonely. Moreover, sadness creeps in from being deprived of his pleasures as well as loneliness. This man will suffer fear and deprivation.

The mystic or the spiritual, this man starts from where the conventional believer ends. He sees that whatever he achieves in this life, he will leave behind. All his securities and all his understanding will not help him in his encounter with death and his after life. Therefore, earthly living becomes meaningless for him. Fear in the background of his heart becomes the driving force for this type of man that keeps pushing him to understand what death is and what is the after life. He approaches religion in a completely different spirit; he looks for a sage to take his hand along the path. This type of man feels fear from death, but his fear comes only from the unknown. He loses his securities along the path but what remains with him is fear of the unknown. He still harbors in his heart that he is going to leave his earthly residence and be somewhere else. This is his fear.

The enlightened or the sage knows that in death, he is going no where, he did not come in order to go, he is non existent and only God exists. There is no fear from death and the after life for him is a living reality here and now.

Just like the story of Nanikawa

The Zen master Ikuyi visited his elder disciple Nanikawa on his death bed and this interchange took place.

Ikuyi: Do you have any need of me? The master asked.

Nanikawa: I came alone and I go alone.

Ikuyi: If you still think that you come and go, this is your delusion,

Would you allow me to tell you about the way where there is no coming nor going.

Nanikawa opened his eyes, nod his head and smiled, He passed away peacefully.

Finally, Sri Ramana in his last hours said "Where would I go?" in responce to disciples saying to Sri Ramana that with your death you are going to leave us.

mourad